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Lobbyists all over Washington are working furiously to get their tax breaks on a special list being kept by Congress’s top tax-writers. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) plan to rebuild the tax code from scratch, lowering rates and eliminating breaks in the process.

When you think of a credit union what comes to mind?
 
Credit unions, like banks, are federally insured financial institutions that provide banking services and loans for their members. They are non-for-profit cooperatives that are owned by all the members, as opposed to banks, which are generally owned by shareholders.

Credit Unions are asking members to contact their congressman after launching a campaign called “Don’t Tax My Credit Union.” The Not for Profit Institutions fear the government could pull their tax exempt status as part of a tax reform to grow government revenues.

The Credit Union National Association, a trade group that represents credit unions, is launching a new campaign to protect its members’ federal tax-exempt status.
 
The campaign, “Don’t Tax My Credit Union,” is intended to rally consumers who belong to credit unions to lobby Congress to preserve the federal tax exemption that credit unions enjoy as not-for-profit, member-owned cooperatives.

The credit union taxation argument has produced an army of angry bankers and credit unions on the defense. In March the American Bankers Association launched a full-scale advertising attack against credit unions’ tax exempt status asserting that the industry has become a revenue generating machine.

If you were to turn to the dark side and decide to destroy the credit union movement, here is how you would do it. Simply put, you would do nothing. You would smile, pat the credit unions on the back and tell them what a great job they are doing, and encourage them to relax and enjoy the warm fuzzies of being part of the cooperative community. With a sense of security and success and by doing absolutely nothing, the credit union movement would almost certainly be dismantled.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the retail banks that so many millions of consumers relied on for decades suddenly became Public Enemy No. 1.
 
When Bank of America and Chase threatened to levy $5 monthly fees on debit cards in 2011, an entire holiday –– National Bank Transfer Day –– was created to encourage customers to cut up their credit cards and ditch big banks.

Earlier this year the American Bankers Association launched an ad campaign across Washington, D.C., aimed at credit unions and their tax-exempt status.
 
The billboards read: “Today credit unions are a $1 trillion industry that pays no income tax. That’s nearly $2 BILLION every year that could help shrink the federal deficit. Now, credit unions want even more perks. It’s time to end credit unions’ indefensible and outdated special treatment. Enough is enough.”

The long-awaited working group report to the House Ways and Means Committee on tax reform, released Monday, is a mixed bag for credit unions.
 
On the one hand, the report from the Working Group on Charitable/Exempt Organizations summarized the input it received to be overall in favor of retaining the credit union tax exemption

PORTLAND, Maine — Local financial institutions grew last year as the backlash to big banks continued, according to finance experts.
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As a result, Maine’s 61 credit unions reached several milestones in 2012, breaking records for membership and assets.